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Transcript of today's SF DOJ press conference
I attended today's press conference at the office of the U.S.
Attorney in San Francisco which addressed yesterday's raid of three
medical cannabis facilities in the city. Since the press conference
was not open to the public, I am posting my own transcript of what
was discussed there. Reporters who attended were required to show
their ID to enter the San Francisco Federal Building. They had their
press credentials scrutinized, were escorted upstairs, and then filed
past armed federal officers before being allowed into the U.S.
Attorney's office for the press conference.
The first statement comes from U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan. More to
follow...I have blogged it at http://www.ontherecord.org
June 23, 2005
Press Conference Statement of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan
I attended today's press conference at the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Francisco which addressed yesterday's raid of three medical cannabis facilities in the city. Since the press conference was not open to the public, I am posting my own transcript of what was discussed there. Reporters who attended were required to show their ID to enter the San Francisco Federal Building. They had their press credentials scrutinized, were escorted upstairs, and then filed past armed federal officers before being allowed into the U.S. Attorney's office for the press conference.
The first statement comes from U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan. More to follow...
My name is Kevin Ryan I’m the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California I want to thank you for coming today. I want to issue a statement with regards to enforcement activity that occurred yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday by multiple agencies involved in the enforcement of our federal laws. As you know at this point, agents from the federal government as well as with the assistance of state and local police departments and agencies, executed search warrants at multiple locations - 26 different locations in the Bay Area, all pursuant to state and federal search warrants issued by judges.
Additionally, arrest warrants have been issued and an indictment had been handed down by a Grand Jury sitting in this jurisdiction on June 16th which was under seal until today’s date, a copy of which has been made available for all of you. The indictment alleges and charges 19 individuals with conspiracy to grow and traffic over 1,000 plants of marijuana over a four-year period. Additionally, three individuals have been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute ecstasy and two individuals have been charged with a conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Additionally, yesterday after the enforcement activity, an arrest warrant was issued for one Vince Ming Wan who is also now wanted by authorities for conspiracy to distribute over 1,000 plants of marijuana.
In the course of this two year investigation, federal and local and state police officers and agencies have executed a total of 47 search warrants at multiple locations including 27 indoor grow sites. In addition to the seizures that occurred yesterday, and they are as follows: yesterday we seized over 9,000 marijuana plants, in fact the total number at this point is 9,309. Without counting on the evidence itself from yesterday, historically that number of plants would have a street value of approximately $5 or more dollars. Three firearms were located, a rifle, a pistol and a revolver.
Eight vehicles were seized and at one location at least, two rather large rottweilers were escorted out of the premises. Over the last two years, in addition to the seizure yesterday, earlier searches also pursuant to state and federal search warrants, resulted in the seizure of an additional 8,500 marijuana plants. With - in conjunction with those searches - a discovery of operational facilities capable of growing and producing over 18,000 marijuana plants.
At this point I would like to thank the agencies involved in the investigation over the last several years, including specifically, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the San Francisco Police Department, the Oakland Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the San Mateo Narcotics Task Force, and the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
Press Conference Statement of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan
I attended today's press conference at the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Francisco which addressed yesterday's raid of three medical cannabis facilities in the city. Since the press conference was not open to the public, I am posting my own transcript of what was discussed there. Reporters who attended were required to show their ID to enter the San Francisco Federal Building. They had their press credentials scrutinized, were escorted upstairs, and then filed past armed federal officers before being allowed into the U.S. Attorney's office for the press conference.
The first statement comes from U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan. More to follow...
My name is Kevin Ryan I’m the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California I want to thank you for coming today. I want to issue a statement with regards to enforcement activity that occurred yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday by multiple agencies involved in the enforcement of our federal laws. As you know at this point, agents from the federal government as well as with the assistance of state and local police departments and agencies, executed search warrants at multiple locations - 26 different locations in the Bay Area, all pursuant to state and federal search warrants issued by judges.
Additionally, arrest warrants have been issued and an indictment had been handed down by a Grand Jury sitting in this jurisdiction on June 16th which was under seal until today’s date, a copy of which has been made available for all of you. The indictment alleges and charges 19 individuals with conspiracy to grow and traffic over 1,000 plants of marijuana over a four-year period. Additionally, three individuals have been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute ecstasy and two individuals have been charged with a conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Additionally, yesterday after the enforcement activity, an arrest warrant was issued for one Vince Ming Wan who is also now wanted by authorities for conspiracy to distribute over 1,000 plants of marijuana.
In the course of this two year investigation, federal and local and state police officers and agencies have executed a total of 47 search warrants at multiple locations including 27 indoor grow sites. In addition to the seizures that occurred yesterday, and they are as follows: yesterday we seized over 9,000 marijuana plants, in fact the total number at this point is 9,309. Without counting on the evidence itself from yesterday, historically that number of plants would have a street value of approximately $5 or more dollars. Three firearms were located, a rifle, a pistol and a revolver.
Eight vehicles were seized and at one location at least, two rather large rottweilers were escorted out of the premises. Over the last two years, in addition to the seizure yesterday, earlier searches also pursuant to state and federal search warrants, resulted in the seizure of an additional 8,500 marijuana plants. With - in conjunction with those searches - a discovery of operational facilities capable of growing and producing over 18,000 marijuana plants.
At this point I would like to thank the agencies involved in the investigation over the last several years, including specifically, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the San Francisco Police Department, the Oakland Police Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the San Mateo Narcotics Task Force, and the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
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June 23, 2005
Transcript of U.S Attorney's Press Conference Pt. II
U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan: I would like to now turn to Javier Pena who is the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency (he means Administration) here in the Bay Area.
Pena: Thank you Mr. Ryan I appreciate it and I want to thank you all for coming here this morning. I just want to make a couple of brief comments echoing Mr. Ryan’s statement. DEA has always targeted and will continue to target drug trafficking organizations marijuana cultivators and those who finance their operations. Operation Urban Harvest, which is what we labeled yesterday’s operation, targeted a marijuana and ecstasy trafficking organization which was in clear violation of federal drug laws.
I want to think the following agencies for an extensive two-year investigation which was conducted by DEA, Secret Service, IRS, ICE, D&E, San Francisco Police Department, Oakland Police Department and San Mateo Narcotics Task Forces. We got a lot of questions about the San Francisco Police Department’s participation and I want to say that they were involved in this investigation of the conspiracy investigation, however, they did not participate in any of the enforcement operations against the dispensaries.
These narcotics traffickers, supply large amounts of marijuana to a number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries which the organization operated. They used their interest in these dispensaries to illegally cultivate, possess and distribute marijuana throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. At these grow locations, we seized over 9,300 plants which we we’ve estimated, doing the math with previous cases, to be worth over $5 million. Interesting also we seized commercial packaged cookies, brownies, cakes all made with marijuana and we’ll have pictures later on. They were packaged for consumption and anybody who had gotten this.
This organization had been operating for over four years. It is now dismantled. We put a stop to their distribution of marijuana and ecstasy and their laundering of illegal proceeds. We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to target drug trafficking organizations, taking them apart from top to bottom including their financial networks.
I just want to end with this, there are some of the public that think they can disregard the courts and Congress, I just want to say that DEA will not be among them.
Hines: My name is Kenneth J. Hines, I’m Assistant Special Agent in charge of Criminal Investigation of the IRS here in Bay Area. And I would just like to state that the IRS criminal investigation is proud to be part of this multi-agency task force working together with state, local and federal authorities. Yesterday’s operation was the culmination of hard work and dedication from the agents assigned to it from different departments investigating this activity.
The primary responsibility of the Internal Revenue Service is the administration of tax law and the enforcement of criminal tax codes and laws. However, IRS expertise is in the area of follow the money. Whether it relates to legal or illegal activities, the Justice Department and Treasury have made it a key point in all our investigations to make a financial part to all these investigations which involve illegal activity and criminal organizations.
Organizations such as this will use means and methods to disguise illegal proceeds derived from their activities. And try to disguise that from law enforcement. The cooperation with this investigation and the agencies involved uncovered that and that is what led to the conspiracy on two indictments yesterday with two individuals.
As I stated before, the IRS is committed with our partners in law enforcement and the US Attorneys Office in enforcing the federal laws and making sure of the protection of the American public through the tax system and the money system as well.
Questions From The Press
Q: The pastries, did you say they appear to be packaged in a particular way or sold through stores?
Pena – Yes, I am saying they were packaged commercially. We are providing some CDs which will have some pictures. They were like chocolate bars, like brownies, to me they looked like you could get them anywhere and not know they had marijuana inside.
Q: Did they have brand name and were they distributed commercially?
Pena: Second question, I do not but there will be pictures in the CD.
Q: Where these places engaging in activity that was considered illegal even under the state medical marijuana laws in terms of its being a front for non-medicinal use?
Ryan: Well I’d like to do…I don’t know if these search warrant affidavits have been unsealed and distributed to the audience at this point. Without answering your question directly, let me refer you to page 44 and 45 of the search warrant affidavit and specifically to a conversation that is alleged to have occurred during the course of this investigation.
This, from our perspective, is a large scale trafficking organization that is involved, in our opinion, based upon the evidence, and as we allege in our indictment distributing a large amount of marijuana and controlled substances throughout the Bay Area. And if you look at the particular sections of the search warrant affidavit, you might glean from that conversation, what the intent was as to certain locations that we searched. Pursuant to these search warrants.
Q: The press release mentions conspiracy marijuana, distribution, money laundering and international bulk cash smuggling. I didn’t see anything about international bulk cash smuggling here in the indictment.
A: I believe if you read through the search warrant affidavit in its entirety, you will see some evidence and I believe that we are going to pursue that further. That there was in fact an effort to smuggle large amounts of cash outside the United States.
Q: Are there searches going on all over California? Are there other countries involved?
A: I can say that this is an active investigation including the individuals arrested in the original indictment and included in the subsequent complaint that was issued yesterday after the searches began. Not only are we looking for additional individuals pertaining to the original charging documents, but I can say that this matter is a continuing investigation and will go forward from this date.
Q From NYT: Can you tell us whether or not this investigation in your view is representative of the medical marijuana clubs or is this is an exception to how these clubs are operated in California?
A: I am not prepared to opine on that particular question, I can tell you that if you look at our charging documents and look at this search warrant affidavit, this conspiracy is alleged to be ongoing for over four years. This is a large scale, I believe, trafficking organization involved in large scale trafficking of marijuana. As I’ve indicated, we over the past two years, have searched 43 different locations, 27 of those have been what we call indoor grow locations.
Yesterday, the evidence led us to search three locations that are dispensaries for marijuana in San Francisco. The evidence led us there. We searched those locations and we left. And we are going to investigate this type of conduct and this case as we go forward.
Q: In yesterday’s arrest and searches, is that sending any message to other the so-called legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries around SF and California?
A: Well I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals, but I don’t have to remind the LA Times that trafficking in marijuana and large scale trafficking in particular is a violation of federal law. And there is an agency dedicated to the enforcement of our drug laws in this country. There are federal statutes that deal with the enforcement of our drug laws in this country. And when the evidence suggests to us that there has been a violation of federal law, then it is our obligation and duty to pursue that when and where it is appropriate.
Q: Does the California law that permits patients to use medical cannabis have any bearing at all on protecting the medical cannabis dispensaries?
Pena: Before I answer that question, one thing, and I think it is really important that I forgot to mention and I think it’s a public concern. On these three grow locations that we visited, they all had illegal wires tapping into PG&E the outlets all over the houses, very unsafe. I’m sure that you have heard of the situations were houses have been burning down, this causes a great deal of concern for us.
Like I said once you see that CD which we are handing out you will see the wiring system which is what causes the fires that were all contained in the three different areas that we went to. So this is how some of our houses are getting burned down.
What is your question again?
Q: What bearing does California’s medical marijuana laws have on the dispensaries?
A: We are talking about this case today not hypotheticals, but all I can tell you is they are in violation of our federal narcotics laws.
And we will continue investigating these large organizations.
Q: Many clubs are concerned about what happened yesterday.
A: I’m glad they are concern…(laughing)
Q: Are there more raids to come?
A: I’ll go back to my previous answer. We are investigating these large trafficking marijuana organizations. They are still against federal law and statutes.
Q: You said earlier there are members of the public who think they disregard the courts and the Congress, the DEA is not among them. Can you expand on what you mean by that?
A: I mean exactly that we will…they are still against federal narcotics laws and we will continue to investigate.
Q: No other sites hit yesterday other than those on that map….
A: Ryan: Yesterday there were a series of sites hit. There were homes, residences hit. There were residences that were searched. There were some other businesses that were searched. Of all the searches conducted yesterday three involved the dispensaries. So yesterday, the DA, together with the partner agencies searched as pursuant to state and federal search warrants.
Q: Were there any others in other parts of the Bay Area?
A: Possibly. I can talk to Luke about why they only put twenty dots in. There were 26 different locations maybe some of them were closed.
A: Were the dispensaries run by the traffickers, or were the dispensary guys in cahoots with the traffickers.
Q: Again I refer you to the particular part of the search warrant that I referred you to earlier. I don’t want to comment too specifically on the evidence at this point. And too specifically on an ongoing investigation.
A: Does the timing of this operation have anything to do with the recent Supreme Court ruling or were you waiting for that ruling?
Q: No, we don’t believe that Raich had any implications whatsoever for this type of case or these charges. As we indicated and as you familiarize yourself with the facts, this conspiracy, this alleged conspiracy, has been ongoing for over four years, we have been investigating it. We have been investigating it for two. Yesterday was the period of time when we were ready to execute and to do certain things. We have been executing over the last two years, a number of search warrants, state search warrants related to the case that indicate this has been an ongoing investigation and through this charging document you’ll see we’ve tied them all together. And for the last two years we have executing warrants and using the state court system as well as the federal system to do that.
Q: Could you talk about the ecstasy charges here? Was there actually ecstasy actually seized in this raid?
A: Yes, it is my understanding is that there were some ecstasy pills seized at one of the location, at one of the dispensary, I believe there were 50 tablets seized at one location pursuant to the searches yesterday.
Q: For a sick person taking marijuana in California right now under the state law should they be worried that there is a stepped up chance that they might be arrested?
A: I think if you look at our charging… I am not going to comment on the particulars of your question. But let me just say, if you look at this indictment and what we are here for today, we have indicted 19 individuals, 20 including the complaint that was issued yesterday afternoon. We believe that evidence suggests and the Grand Jury concurs and various state and federal judges have also agreed that there is enough evidence to go forward alleging a widespread conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance by a group of individuals who may or may not be working as an organization and as it relates to your particular question, it’s different.
We are not talking about ill people who may be using marijuana. We are talking about a criminal enterprise engaged in a widespread distribution of large amounts. Millions of dollars if you base it on historical evidence of marijuana and other drugs. And money laundering, the proceeds from activities here in this country and potentially allegedly in other countries.
Q: Could you name those countries?
A: No, we are not investigating any other countries.
Q: Both of your mentioned large-scale operations. What qualifies as large scale?
A: Well this does, we have over 18,000 plants. I’ll let the DEA answer the question as to how marijuana is processed, how it is harvested. How many times it is harvested a year, what kinds of proceeds you can get from the type of numbers that we are seeing here. I think if you look historically at some of the prosecutions in this area, just the amount of marijuana that was seized yesterday at the various location, over 9,000 plants and there were some seedlings as well seized, have harvested and solve is worth a street value a whole sale value of over $5 million dollars.
Now we can get into the hypotheticals of how many times you can harvest a grow site, whether it is one two, three or four times. Experts will give you a different opinion on that, but arguably, some instances we have seen grow sites harvested on multiple occasions. A grow worth approximately $5 million dollars at a particular cycle, if you do that four times a year. Some could make the argument that a grow site is worth, with this number of plants, under the circumstances is worth more than $5 million dollars. We consider this to be a very large operation involving large amounts of marijuana that has a very high value on the street on wholesale prices.
Q: Could you tell us how much was going to medical marijuana, how much was going to street sales?
A: I refer you to the search warrant affidavit. I can tell you it’s in the search warrant affidavit. I would refer you to a particular discussion by one of the individuals under indictment as to the nature of some of the distribution models as well as to the use of different venues to distribute marijuana.
I think the media today has a CD.
Q: You said there were 47 locations were served. How many were medical marijuana clubs.
A: Yesterday three dispensaries were served pursuant to search warrants and affidavits, the rest were indoor grow sites and other locations, business, homes, residences that evidence suggest were used as grow sites as well.
Q: There are lots of medical marijuana patients who are outside and upset by this. Are they being taken advantage of by people like this by people who are using their illness and their medical marijuana grows for illicit purposes other than helping those people out?
A: I am not going to comment on that.
Q: Will this types of investigations continue, state government be damned, local government be damned?
A: I say that this investigation is ongoing.
Transcript of U.S Attorney's Press Conference Pt. II
U.S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan: I would like to now turn to Javier Pena who is the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency (he means Administration) here in the Bay Area.
Pena: Thank you Mr. Ryan I appreciate it and I want to thank you all for coming here this morning. I just want to make a couple of brief comments echoing Mr. Ryan’s statement. DEA has always targeted and will continue to target drug trafficking organizations marijuana cultivators and those who finance their operations. Operation Urban Harvest, which is what we labeled yesterday’s operation, targeted a marijuana and ecstasy trafficking organization which was in clear violation of federal drug laws.
I want to think the following agencies for an extensive two-year investigation which was conducted by DEA, Secret Service, IRS, ICE, D&E, San Francisco Police Department, Oakland Police Department and San Mateo Narcotics Task Forces. We got a lot of questions about the San Francisco Police Department’s participation and I want to say that they were involved in this investigation of the conspiracy investigation, however, they did not participate in any of the enforcement operations against the dispensaries.
These narcotics traffickers, supply large amounts of marijuana to a number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries which the organization operated. They used their interest in these dispensaries to illegally cultivate, possess and distribute marijuana throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. At these grow locations, we seized over 9,300 plants which we we’ve estimated, doing the math with previous cases, to be worth over $5 million. Interesting also we seized commercial packaged cookies, brownies, cakes all made with marijuana and we’ll have pictures later on. They were packaged for consumption and anybody who had gotten this.
This organization had been operating for over four years. It is now dismantled. We put a stop to their distribution of marijuana and ecstasy and their laundering of illegal proceeds. We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to target drug trafficking organizations, taking them apart from top to bottom including their financial networks.
I just want to end with this, there are some of the public that think they can disregard the courts and Congress, I just want to say that DEA will not be among them.
Hines: My name is Kenneth J. Hines, I’m Assistant Special Agent in charge of Criminal Investigation of the IRS here in Bay Area. And I would just like to state that the IRS criminal investigation is proud to be part of this multi-agency task force working together with state, local and federal authorities. Yesterday’s operation was the culmination of hard work and dedication from the agents assigned to it from different departments investigating this activity.
The primary responsibility of the Internal Revenue Service is the administration of tax law and the enforcement of criminal tax codes and laws. However, IRS expertise is in the area of follow the money. Whether it relates to legal or illegal activities, the Justice Department and Treasury have made it a key point in all our investigations to make a financial part to all these investigations which involve illegal activity and criminal organizations.
Organizations such as this will use means and methods to disguise illegal proceeds derived from their activities. And try to disguise that from law enforcement. The cooperation with this investigation and the agencies involved uncovered that and that is what led to the conspiracy on two indictments yesterday with two individuals.
As I stated before, the IRS is committed with our partners in law enforcement and the US Attorneys Office in enforcing the federal laws and making sure of the protection of the American public through the tax system and the money system as well.
Questions From The Press
Q: The pastries, did you say they appear to be packaged in a particular way or sold through stores?
Pena – Yes, I am saying they were packaged commercially. We are providing some CDs which will have some pictures. They were like chocolate bars, like brownies, to me they looked like you could get them anywhere and not know they had marijuana inside.
Q: Did they have brand name and were they distributed commercially?
Pena: Second question, I do not but there will be pictures in the CD.
Q: Where these places engaging in activity that was considered illegal even under the state medical marijuana laws in terms of its being a front for non-medicinal use?
Ryan: Well I’d like to do…I don’t know if these search warrant affidavits have been unsealed and distributed to the audience at this point. Without answering your question directly, let me refer you to page 44 and 45 of the search warrant affidavit and specifically to a conversation that is alleged to have occurred during the course of this investigation.
This, from our perspective, is a large scale trafficking organization that is involved, in our opinion, based upon the evidence, and as we allege in our indictment distributing a large amount of marijuana and controlled substances throughout the Bay Area. And if you look at the particular sections of the search warrant affidavit, you might glean from that conversation, what the intent was as to certain locations that we searched. Pursuant to these search warrants.
Q: The press release mentions conspiracy marijuana, distribution, money laundering and international bulk cash smuggling. I didn’t see anything about international bulk cash smuggling here in the indictment.
A: I believe if you read through the search warrant affidavit in its entirety, you will see some evidence and I believe that we are going to pursue that further. That there was in fact an effort to smuggle large amounts of cash outside the United States.
Q: Are there searches going on all over California? Are there other countries involved?
A: I can say that this is an active investigation including the individuals arrested in the original indictment and included in the subsequent complaint that was issued yesterday after the searches began. Not only are we looking for additional individuals pertaining to the original charging documents, but I can say that this matter is a continuing investigation and will go forward from this date.
Q From NYT: Can you tell us whether or not this investigation in your view is representative of the medical marijuana clubs or is this is an exception to how these clubs are operated in California?
A: I am not prepared to opine on that particular question, I can tell you that if you look at our charging documents and look at this search warrant affidavit, this conspiracy is alleged to be ongoing for over four years. This is a large scale, I believe, trafficking organization involved in large scale trafficking of marijuana. As I’ve indicated, we over the past two years, have searched 43 different locations, 27 of those have been what we call indoor grow locations.
Yesterday, the evidence led us to search three locations that are dispensaries for marijuana in San Francisco. The evidence led us there. We searched those locations and we left. And we are going to investigate this type of conduct and this case as we go forward.
Q: In yesterday’s arrest and searches, is that sending any message to other the so-called legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries around SF and California?
A: Well I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals, but I don’t have to remind the LA Times that trafficking in marijuana and large scale trafficking in particular is a violation of federal law. And there is an agency dedicated to the enforcement of our drug laws in this country. There are federal statutes that deal with the enforcement of our drug laws in this country. And when the evidence suggests to us that there has been a violation of federal law, then it is our obligation and duty to pursue that when and where it is appropriate.
Q: Does the California law that permits patients to use medical cannabis have any bearing at all on protecting the medical cannabis dispensaries?
Pena: Before I answer that question, one thing, and I think it is really important that I forgot to mention and I think it’s a public concern. On these three grow locations that we visited, they all had illegal wires tapping into PG&E the outlets all over the houses, very unsafe. I’m sure that you have heard of the situations were houses have been burning down, this causes a great deal of concern for us.
Like I said once you see that CD which we are handing out you will see the wiring system which is what causes the fires that were all contained in the three different areas that we went to. So this is how some of our houses are getting burned down.
What is your question again?
Q: What bearing does California’s medical marijuana laws have on the dispensaries?
A: We are talking about this case today not hypotheticals, but all I can tell you is they are in violation of our federal narcotics laws.
And we will continue investigating these large organizations.
Q: Many clubs are concerned about what happened yesterday.
A: I’m glad they are concern…(laughing)
Q: Are there more raids to come?
A: I’ll go back to my previous answer. We are investigating these large trafficking marijuana organizations. They are still against federal law and statutes.
Q: You said earlier there are members of the public who think they disregard the courts and the Congress, the DEA is not among them. Can you expand on what you mean by that?
A: I mean exactly that we will…they are still against federal narcotics laws and we will continue to investigate.
Q: No other sites hit yesterday other than those on that map….
A: Ryan: Yesterday there were a series of sites hit. There were homes, residences hit. There were residences that were searched. There were some other businesses that were searched. Of all the searches conducted yesterday three involved the dispensaries. So yesterday, the DA, together with the partner agencies searched as pursuant to state and federal search warrants.
Q: Were there any others in other parts of the Bay Area?
A: Possibly. I can talk to Luke about why they only put twenty dots in. There were 26 different locations maybe some of them were closed.
A: Were the dispensaries run by the traffickers, or were the dispensary guys in cahoots with the traffickers.
Q: Again I refer you to the particular part of the search warrant that I referred you to earlier. I don’t want to comment too specifically on the evidence at this point. And too specifically on an ongoing investigation.
A: Does the timing of this operation have anything to do with the recent Supreme Court ruling or were you waiting for that ruling?
Q: No, we don’t believe that Raich had any implications whatsoever for this type of case or these charges. As we indicated and as you familiarize yourself with the facts, this conspiracy, this alleged conspiracy, has been ongoing for over four years, we have been investigating it. We have been investigating it for two. Yesterday was the period of time when we were ready to execute and to do certain things. We have been executing over the last two years, a number of search warrants, state search warrants related to the case that indicate this has been an ongoing investigation and through this charging document you’ll see we’ve tied them all together. And for the last two years we have executing warrants and using the state court system as well as the federal system to do that.
Q: Could you talk about the ecstasy charges here? Was there actually ecstasy actually seized in this raid?
A: Yes, it is my understanding is that there were some ecstasy pills seized at one of the location, at one of the dispensary, I believe there were 50 tablets seized at one location pursuant to the searches yesterday.
Q: For a sick person taking marijuana in California right now under the state law should they be worried that there is a stepped up chance that they might be arrested?
A: I think if you look at our charging… I am not going to comment on the particulars of your question. But let me just say, if you look at this indictment and what we are here for today, we have indicted 19 individuals, 20 including the complaint that was issued yesterday afternoon. We believe that evidence suggests and the Grand Jury concurs and various state and federal judges have also agreed that there is enough evidence to go forward alleging a widespread conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance by a group of individuals who may or may not be working as an organization and as it relates to your particular question, it’s different.
We are not talking about ill people who may be using marijuana. We are talking about a criminal enterprise engaged in a widespread distribution of large amounts. Millions of dollars if you base it on historical evidence of marijuana and other drugs. And money laundering, the proceeds from activities here in this country and potentially allegedly in other countries.
Q: Could you name those countries?
A: No, we are not investigating any other countries.
Q: Both of your mentioned large-scale operations. What qualifies as large scale?
A: Well this does, we have over 18,000 plants. I’ll let the DEA answer the question as to how marijuana is processed, how it is harvested. How many times it is harvested a year, what kinds of proceeds you can get from the type of numbers that we are seeing here. I think if you look historically at some of the prosecutions in this area, just the amount of marijuana that was seized yesterday at the various location, over 9,000 plants and there were some seedlings as well seized, have harvested and solve is worth a street value a whole sale value of over $5 million dollars.
Now we can get into the hypotheticals of how many times you can harvest a grow site, whether it is one two, three or four times. Experts will give you a different opinion on that, but arguably, some instances we have seen grow sites harvested on multiple occasions. A grow worth approximately $5 million dollars at a particular cycle, if you do that four times a year. Some could make the argument that a grow site is worth, with this number of plants, under the circumstances is worth more than $5 million dollars. We consider this to be a very large operation involving large amounts of marijuana that has a very high value on the street on wholesale prices.
Q: Could you tell us how much was going to medical marijuana, how much was going to street sales?
A: I refer you to the search warrant affidavit. I can tell you it’s in the search warrant affidavit. I would refer you to a particular discussion by one of the individuals under indictment as to the nature of some of the distribution models as well as to the use of different venues to distribute marijuana.
I think the media today has a CD.
Q: You said there were 47 locations were served. How many were medical marijuana clubs.
A: Yesterday three dispensaries were served pursuant to search warrants and affidavits, the rest were indoor grow sites and other locations, business, homes, residences that evidence suggest were used as grow sites as well.
Q: There are lots of medical marijuana patients who are outside and upset by this. Are they being taken advantage of by people like this by people who are using their illness and their medical marijuana grows for illicit purposes other than helping those people out?
A: I am not going to comment on that.
Q: Will this types of investigations continue, state government be damned, local government be damned?
A: I say that this investigation is ongoing.
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